Fishtail
by siqwithaQ
Summary: By chance, Usopp happens upon a merman named Luffy, not only opening his eyes to creatures beyond humans, but giving him the inspiration he needed for an important art project. Soon, his classmate Ace also takes an interest in the merman — now, if only they could get Luffy to talk to them!
1. First Encounter

Usopp took a deep breath before walking into the final chamber of the underground cave. It seemed that had been the right course of action, as the sight that met him was breathtaking.

The artist had stumbled upon the entrance to this cave earlier that day. He had been searching for something to draw and thought the grotto was so disturbingly perfect he just had to. He could tell, though, that the cavern would be even more spectacular after dark, and therefore resolved to return later with every piece of art equipment he could carry. He mentally gave himself a pat on the back as his eyes scoured the area. His find was truly incredible.

Odd, greenish crystals glittered on the walls, and the walls themselves contained a silvery tint that hadn't been noticeable during the daylight. The stalactites above Usopp's head created more of a chandelier-like effect than anything else, and the glossy floor shone as if it had just been polished. Last but not least, there was a mid-sized pool in the centre of the chamber floor. The waters shimmered in the starlight, and if you looked into them you wouldn't be able to tell how deep it went. It was saltwater, Usopp had tested, which meant the inlet was probably connected to the ocean somehow. Usopp could deduce from this that the cave he was in now was probably far, far underground. He had actually lost track of time on his way through the downwards tunnel to get there, so it must not have been that much of a stretch to assume so.

Usopp settled himself down near the wall and reached for his sketchbook. There was only one problem left unsolved as he flipped for an empty page.

What to draw?

Should he draw the cave as a whole? Or maybe a design of the crystals on the wall, or a single crystal apart from the others, or even the stalactites? He could draw the water and practice making light refract in _just_ the right way–

A loud splash snapped Usopp from his reverie.

He dragged his eyes over to the waters–the very waters he'd just been contemplating–and saw a black haired boy, no older than him, had just surfaced from underwater.

The boy had his back to him, but Usopp could tell he was smiling despite that. The previously swimming teen was practically radiating joy. Usopp could feel himself being uplifted from the second-hand exuberance, and the room seemed to glow just the tiniest bit more than it had a second ago. He was still examining the boy when something bizarre happened. The new arrival leaned forward, away from Usopp, when a large fish's tail fin popped up out of the water.

It was most definitely large indeed. By size alone it could have possibly been a shark's or a dolphin's. Otherwise, it was something that could only belong to some kind of tropical fish. It was almost translucently white in colour, and flowed outwards beautifully, not unlike a bride's veil.

Shocked at the revelation, as he was fairly sure the tail was connected to the boy, Usopp couldn't stop a whispered question from passing his lips.

"What… What _are_ you?"

The mermaid–Merman?–gasped and spun around to see him. Usopp got a half-second long look at panicked brown eyes before the boy–and his tail–disappeared unto the water.

The human crawled on his hands and knees to the pool and peeked down. There was the boy, looking up at him from only a hair's breadth beneath the water's surface, meeting his gaze with just as much curiosity, if not more. From this close, the boy's wide brown eyes, a scar beneath one of them, were made more visible. Usopp took one glance at the other's youthful features and decided merman was not the right term for someone like him. He thought 'mer-boy' was much more fitting.

He reached out to let his fingers graze the top of the water, but the mer-boy quickly turned and dived downwards, stopping after a second. The mer-boy was much further down than he originally was, looking almost doll-sized to Usopp, but somehow could still be seen clearly, as if he really did radiate joy in the form of light. From this distance, Usopp could finally make out how extensive the boy's tail actually was. The tail must have been at least three–no, _four_ times as long as Usopp was tall. It almost looked like it was made of pure white ribbon as it danced and coiled around the boy in the water. The sight was ethereal.

The mer-boy took one last look at Usopp before, with a flick of his lengthy tail, he sped away.

Usopp lingered near the water for a moment, but went back to his sketchbook. The image of what happened just a minute ago would be burned in his mind forever, but he was glad for it.

He may not have gotten to actually talk to the mer-boy, but that didn't matter.

He had a great idea for his next art project.


	2. Distracted Chats

A/N: Wow, the beginning is a little more angsty than I intended to make it when I sat down to write. Oh well. And this story is going to move from a single one-shot to a collection of sparsely updated one-shots within the same universe. You get new chapters when I get inspiration.

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><p>All scenery was a blur before his eyes as he sped away, his body gliding easily through the sea. It had always been a talent of his to swim swifter than even the fastest of the fast, probably aided by his atypically long tail.<p>

When he could tell he was getting closer to his destination, he finally slowed himself to a more leisurely pace. He wrinkled his nose absently as he weaved through bits of floating trash in the water, his mind still hovering around the encounter he had earlier.

_That was a human. A human! Wow. I met a human. I met a human. I met a human!_

He secretively covered the grin that the thought had brought on with his hands. Having just arrived at the border of the underwater village he called home, the outcast knew that it would be a bad idea to let other villagers glimpse his gladness. He knew if they did, it would get back to his main antagonists through word-of-mouth, and he would be in for trouble.

_Do all humans have noses that long? Or is he… Is he like me?_

He had always been victimized, for as long as he can remember, because of his _anomaly_. His _unnaturalness_.

They _hated_ him for his _freakish_ tail.

It was Nature's Mistake, an aberration and a monstrosity, Creation's Dirty Secret. _It was only_ _a burden that did nothing more than attract some petty, unwanted attention._

After all, it took up so much space that it was always in the way. What good came of a tail that was triple or more a human's height in length?

Did that human have the same troubles? Was he bullied and snubbed by his peers for his long nose?

Maybe all humans _do_ have long noses. _Maybe he was staring at me like that because my nose was short and weird to him._

Wonderful. Another aspect to define the gap between the _him_ and the _normal_.

It hit him very suddenly that he had been floating in the middle of the pathway, obstructing people from passing easily, when he was pushed harshly out of the way and out of his thoughts.

"Move it, Freaktail."

_Freak_

_Freak Freak Freak Freak Freak Freak Freak Freak FreakFreakFreakFreakFreakFre ak _

He rocketed himself away, ducking behind whatever he could fit _that tail_ behind and out of sight. It just wouldn't do to be dragged down into this issue when he had to go see Shirahoshi. He let himself grin more openly this time as he practically teleported to the palace with his extraordinary speed, sneaking in to see his one and only friend and sympathizer.

Shirahoshi had never been truly accepted either. She was many times the size of a house, and the only reason she was any better off than him was that she was the princess of their village and people were obligated to be polite to her.

They weren't, however, obligated to be friendly.

He loved visiting Shirahoshi. Her room was always impeccably clean, in such a way he would never be able to manage himself. The furnishings were lavish, and there was even a chair large enough that he could stretch himself out end to end on it and not only fit (A rarity in itself) but have extra room. He would often bring her gifts or stories, help her do her hair or play a game of some kind with her and Megalo, and she would feed him, and all the while they would have long conversations about anything that held their interest that day.

Today, she offered him a small smile from her seat by her mirror, and he swam over to pick up her comb.

"Father still hasn't returned from his trip. Uncle has been taking care of us, but I still miss him."

He nodded his acknowledgement at her as he separated three lengths of hair for a braid, wrestling one in both arms and holding another with his tail, leaving a third hanging loose. They were disproportionate, but it was the best he was going to get so he didn't mind that.

"Sometimes, though, I think Uncle has been a little too hard on my brothers."

Carefully holding one of the lengths of hair, he slipped it in between the other two before grabbing the next and repeating the process. The only sign he heard what she said was a faint _Hmmm?_

"Earlier, he gave Fukaboshi duty of fixing up a heap of Bon Chari after he dropped his pasta on the floor. Fukaboshi doesn't even know anything about Bon Chari!"

He spared a brief thought to the irony that their culture imitated such human customs like cuisine and architecture while even the most minor of acquaintanceships with humans were strictly taboo as he finished up the last of the braiding.

"The worst part is he's trying to pressure me to marry."

Distracted, he merely made an aggravated noise as he tried to reach the hair tie while simultaneously holding the end of the braid. Why oh why did it have to be sitting on the furthest possible counter from them? Her hair made a rope connecting him to her head, not letting him get as far away as he needed to. The damn thing was just beyond his fingertips. If he could only reach a little further… Ah-ha!

"But, but…" She sniffled. "I just know that no one is going to want to marry a weirdo like me!"

Behind her, there was some thrashing as he tried to stretch the hair tie to contain her newly braided hair.

"Luffy?" She simmered with confusion at his silence, only now noticing he had yet to say a word. He was usually a lot more vocal…

The boy grinned at his handiwork. Shirahoshi's hair was now done in a lopsided braid that was _beautiful thank you very much._ He let himself go lax, hanging from her hair like a monkey on a tire swing.

"Luffy?" she asked again, turning around to see him.

Unfortunately, her quick turn meant that her new braid swung around, bringing Luffy with it. He yelped with surprise.

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry…" she apologized, poking at him where he was squished against her breast after having been thrown over her shoulder.

"It's fine," he finally chuckled. "I should be the one saying sorry. I was distracted with your hair and wasn't listening."

"It's alright. I think I'd rather talk about something else anyway," she consoled.

Luffy nodded, taking another look at the braid. When he thought about it, it would look better with some kind of decoration with it. Quickly, he grabbed a piece of kelp from a plant nearby and began to thread it through her hair.

"Did anything interesting happen to you today?" she asked, honestly curious.

_Don't tell her a human saw you, don't tell her a human saw you. Just say "Nothing Much" and leave it at that. Don't tell her a human saw you, don't tell her a human saw you–_

"A human saw me today."

_Damnit!_

"**What?!**"

She turned her head rapidly, again swinging the braid – and Luffy. This time, the slippery kelp made him lose his grip, slamming into the wall.

"Ah! I'm so so sorry!" she cried, breaking down into soft sobs.

Luffy sighed. He wondered how in the Seven Seas he was going to explain this and convince her not to tell her Father.


	3. The Classmate

A/N: Someone asked about it, so I want to stress this: THIS IS NOT A PAIRING FIC. THERE ARE NO PAIRINGS IN THIS. Also, rating bumped up largely on account of a certain person's potty mouth.

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><p>Usopp was glad he went to a predominantly art based college. If he told his professor that he needed to work on location for his big project, he got a pass to go for it and work away from the school for as long as he liked, so long as he kept his professor updated on his progress. He had made use of this to spend as much of his time as possible at the cavern he had found.<p>

He had never felt quite so inspired before. Already, he had filled countless sketchbooks, made numerous paintings, and even a little clay figurine. There were drawings done in pencil crayons, watercolours, poster paint, pastels, charcoal, and whatever he could get his hands on on any given day.

Some of the drawings were of the cave, but the vast majority were of the merboy he had glimpsed that day. He kept all his work in the cave itself, as there were far too many for him to carry home by himself, and he wasn't ready to show his drawings to anyone just yet. He knew they were safe there from prying eyes; the cavern was too difficult to find.

The entrance was hidden within a rock face by the odd formation around it. There was a thin sheet of rock, covering the entrance like a curtain. Besides that, the rock face itself was a challenge to reach. You had to climb up a steep mountain of a rock just the right way and then edge along a narrow protrusion just to get there, all the while the ocean below crashed onto jagged stones and invited painful death to those who fell. If that didn't deter you, there were multiple paths to take once you had gotten past the entrance. All of them were only just large enough for an adult to fit through, and Usopp would have had a tough time if he were any bigger than he was. Only a single pathway would take you to the right cavern, and that pathway continuously split off into multiple pathways. It would have been impossible to navigate, considering the darkness within the pathways was all consuming, but Usopp had painted small, glow in the dark arrows to help him.

And so he kept his artwork there, where no one could ever see them. Except one person.

In part of his mind, Usopp was hoping for the merboy to come back, to see the drawings of him. He wanted to know what the merboy thought, if he liked them, if he was even okay with this all. He was starting to believe that he would never know, but part of him still desperately wanted to. Another part of him desperately wanted that annoying beeping sound to stop.

Wait, what?

There was a loud beeping noise broadcasting from his pocket. Digging his fingers through it came up with a cell phone, loudly informing him that he had a message.

'_shithead get ur ass over here. its more urgent than ur project'_

It was from his friend Sanji. If Usopp didn't go now, he would really be in for it later. The man had a temper that could only be soothed by beautiful women, of which Usopp was not one.

Sighing, he put down the simple pencil sketch he had been working on. Feeling his way up through the passage, he used the arrows to guide himself rather than the flashlight in his pocket, as usual. He slid through the curtain of rock in front of the entrance and tiptoed carefully down the slender ledge. He clambered down the rock face measuredly, only to jump down the last distance to the ground and land in front of someone.

"GYAAAH!" he yelled as soon as he realised he was facing a stranger, receiving a similar exclamation of shock in return. It wasn't long before they both had their flashlights shining in each other's faces. Usopp paled when he registered whom he was looking at. "P-Portgas-senpai!" he stuttered. "What are you doing here?"

Standing in front of him was the most well known student at his school, his upperclassman Portgas D Ace. Ace was admired by most of the school for his good grades, good looks, and good-natured personality. He had won multiple local art competitions already at his age, put up against older competitors who had more training and experience than himself. He had a bustling social life and hell, he practically had an army of fangirls!

So, it was _just a little_ daunting for bottom-of-the-social-latter Usopp to be meeting him.

Ace gestured to the objects (were those sticks?) he was carrying under his arm. "I'm collecting driftwood for a project." (So they **were** sticks) "What are _you_ doing here?"

"I am also doing a project," Usopp answered robotically, and Ace raised an eyebrow at him.

"Alright then." Damnit. He just made himself look like an ass, didn't he? "But where's your stuff?"

"I-i-i-i-it's… somewhere else!" He was panicking now and he didn't know why. "I've g-g-got to go!"

And he ran.

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><p>Ace watched the long-nosed boy as he ran off. Fuck. Why were the kohai always so scared of him? When the boy rounded a corner and out of sight, Ace glanced around himself and wondered where the kid had come from. It had sounded like he had dropped onto the ground from some height, but where?<p>

He stood in front of a steep rock face with the sea behind him. To his left, the sand dropped away suddenly and waves battered upon rough stones. The rock face was smooth as if it had been polished, except for a few indentations—

No, hang on. Indentations. Indentations in a smooth, steep rock face, just big enough for a hand. He trailed the beam from his flashlight up the linear trail of notches as something ached in the back of his memories. The light fell on a thin ledge, which led halfway down the wall-like stone towards a…

_The rock face looked especially dull that day as eager hands brought the chisel to it._

He could almost remember something. Something important.

_The rock face was featureless. It wouldn't be for long_.

He remembered… He remembered…

_Footsteps along an attenuated ledge. A perfervid feeling of triumph._

He remembered.

_The cave._

Placing his flashlight between his teeth, he began to scale the wall using the notches carved out so many years before.

Slinking down the ledge and through the pathway was harder than he remembered, though it was probably because he was a lot bigger than he used to be. Even if he hadn't seen the arrows, he would still have been able to find the cave with his eyes closed. He had taken this route so many times before the directions were seared into his being.

And there it was. The cave. The very same cave he had claimed for himself in his childhood, the one he had spent months trying to reach, the one he hadn't revisited for years and years and had nearly forgotten was still there. Still here. And… covered in drawings?

There was paper everywhere, all covered in art and paint and colour, littering the ground like breadcrumbs. Ace picked one up off the floor to take a good look at it, observing briefly that each piece was of the same thing, with a couple exceptions. And what a picture it was.

It was a watercolour painting, marvellously created. It showed a lot of promising talent, though that wasn't what Ace focused on.

The picture itself was of a boy. A boy with black hair, a scar, and a smile. It showed him from an aerial view; he was looking up at the viewer of the painting. The boy was underwater, that much was obvious, and he was grinning cheekily.

And he had a tail.

An honest, immense fish tail trailing down behind him.

Ace looked at the other pictures, all of the same boy, and noticed that some poses were drawn more than others. Most common were drawings of the boy a hair's breadth away, looking up curiously at his viewer. The water's surface rippled his appearance oh-so-slightly. Second were portrayals of the boy farther down and doll-sized, his tail capering around him, beautiful and flowing like silk. Third were depictions of him leaning forward against the edge a pool, back to the viewer, and proudly displaying his shroud-like tail. That pool, the same pool as was in _that very cave._ He could recognise it anywhere. The third were the only drawings of him above water.

After having seen those three poses, all the rest suddenly looked the slightest bit off, like they were experiments, like they were drawn without reference. The pictures varied in medium; there were multiples of each of the three poses, all created with different tools, and the other poses varied just as much, but they were all of him. All of the same boy, with the same face, the same scar, and the same tail.

And Ace could tell from the make of the art. From the details, the style, the perspective, the repetition, the flaws and the flawlessness. Oh yes, Ace could tell.

It was real.

It was all real.

And the long-nosed boy had seen it.

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><p>AN: Welp. Nothing to say, really.


	4. His Brother

A/N: I think most of the chapters are going to be about above water happenings. I just have more ideas for the above water crew than the below water crew right now.

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><p>"If your shitty dog was going to hide from me, where would it be?"<p>

Usopp stared at Sanji incredulously. "You lost Chopper. You lost him, didn't you?"

"No!" Sanji objected vehemently. "I just… don't know where it is."

Usopp rubbed his temples and sank onto the leather couch. "Okay, tell me what happened."

"So I came to your shitty house–" a broad gesture to the living room around them, "–to feed it like you asked me to, and I swear your dog speaks human, because when I made a joke about cooking _it_ for dinner, it ran away and hid."

He gaped. "You said you were going to _eat him?_"

"I was joking!"

"Okay, okay!" He threw up his hands. "Whatever. Let's just find him before he pisses on something important. He still isn't house broken, you know."

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><p>Luffy watched the arriving Yagara curiously.<p>

He had been napping far outside the city limits when he first saw it approach. It was carriage-like in appearance, decorated with purple, gold — which he knew were royal colours — and for some reason, sea foam green. It was pulled through the water by two large fish, making Luffy wonder who was inside.

_What merperson doesn't want to swim?_

He'd tailed the Yagara on its way just to satisfy his curiosity. They were still a long distance from the city and the Yagara was going very slowly — compared to what Luffy was capable of — so he was in no real rush, but he _was_ impatient. So, cautiously, he swam up to its side and peeked through a window.

He was met with the startlingly green eyes of a grizzled merman whose hair looked laughably similar to moss.

He waved.

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><p>"<em>Finally<em>," Usopp stressed, plopping down into a kitchen chair with his Pomeranian safely in his arms. "I had to leave my project behind to help you when all you had to do was look in the closet?"

"How would I know it'd be in the closet?" Sanji asked, pulling a cigarette from his breast pocket and lighting it. For once, Usopp didn't protest. "Shit. You're so tired you're not even gonna scold me for smoking? You really have been running yourself ragged with this project. You haven't been procrastinating, have you?"

"No, no. I've just been so inspired I want to work as much as I can."

"Well, that's good," Sanji told him, "because the final presentation's in a few days, and you better be finished by then."

"Yeah, I know. I just need someone to help me move the pieces, mainly. Feel like helping? You can be the very first person to see the work I've done," Usopp offered.

Sanji smirked. "I'd be honoured."

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><p>The Yagara charged through the water, bringing its riders to their destination of Fishman City. Zoro and Kuina relaxed in the comfortable seats as Kuina slept and Zoro watched the scenery out the window.<p>

That is, until someone's face blocked his view.

The first thing that struck him was that the boy (for it was certainly a boy) was somehow keeping up with the Yagara, despite the Yagara being the fastest mode of transportation known to merman, and they were going top speed.

The boy waved.

Zoro waved back.

The boy grinned, then took off incredibly quickly and outpaced the Yagara within a second. Zoro noticed that, even with the boy's impossible speed, it took a considerable time for his entire tail to go past.

Zoro leaned his upper body out the window, just in time to see the boy stop, turn backwards, and wave to him again. It was then, and only then, that he saw the lengthy white tail that cleaved the water like mist. Then the boy was gone.

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><p>"Hey, Sabo!"<p>

"What is it now?" Sabo twisted in his chair, away from his work desk, and looked at his twin brother exasperatedly.

"You'll _never_ guess what I saw today," Ace raved.

Oh, how wonderful. The idiot brought something else home to talk about. They were always the stupidest things.

He sighed. "What?"

"There are these drawings one of the kohai—"

"It's rude to call them that, you know."

"These drawings a long-nosed boy made," Ace corrected himself. "And you know what they're of? A _merman_."

"So? There's loads of art about mythical creatures," Sabo pointed out. "What's the big deal this time?"

"Well, this time, it's real."

"For the love of…" He put his head in his hands. "How many times are you going to have to be told that things like that aren't real?"

"I _know_ this is real, Sabo. You just can't draw something as detailed as he did without reference."

"That doesn't mean the merman's real. It could have been drawn from a figurine or a guy in a costume," Sabo contradicted.

Ace shook his head. "I think they're—"

"Enough," Sabo cut him off, standing. "I'm not going to get any work done like this. I'm going upstairs, you believe whatever you like."

He picked up his books and papers, leaving the unimportant ones because it had taken him two trips to get them to his desk anyway, and made to ascend the nearby staircase. He might have gotten somewhere, but Ace placed himself in front of the narrow entrance to the stairs in a (successful) attempt to stop him.

"But wait! This is important!" his brother protested. "I think—"

"How is **this** _important_? It's just some kid's fantasy," Sabo scoffed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have exams to study for. _Unlike you._"

He tried to step around him, but Ace countered. "Just listen to me, okay? Forget the merman part, the guy's still real. You said so yourself."

"I said he might be," he reminded, "but yes, the guy's still 'real,' even if he's only a figurine. What about it?"

"_What about it?_" Ace imitated incredulously. "Do you _know_ what he looked like?"

"How could I?" Sabo exclaimed, dropping his books back down on his desk in frustration. "I didn't see the pictures!"

"He looked like– give me that." Ace tore a piece of lined paper from between the pages of one of Sabo's book, at the same time taking an art pencil from his own pocket.

"Those are my notes," Sabo complained as Ace flipped the page over to where there was still some empty space and started on a quick sketch (to Ace anyway; as an artist, what was a rough sketch to him was a rather impressive portrait to his non-artistic brother).

"Here," Ace said, handing the drawing to Sabo when he finished. "That's him."

Sabo huffed in annoyance but took the sketch anyway. Ace didn't have an eraser with him, so he could still see the faint base lines of the face, dictating where the eyes fell. Sabo scanned the drawing once, then twice, then a third time as shock pushed the irritation off his face. He looked back at Ace, who was waiting patiently, and they shared a look of understanding. "…No."

"Yes," Ace insisted.

"_No_."

"Yes."

"Really, _no._"

"Really, yes." Ace took the sketch back from him gently, gazing down at that _**face **_for himself.

"But… how?"

"I don't know how and I don't know why," Ace ran his fingertips down the page gingerly, almost afraid to somehow hurt the pictured boy. He looked up pointedly at Sabo and continued, "…but they were pictures of Luffy."

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><p>AN: Yay! Finally an update, for those of you who still care about this story. And what's this? Ace and Sabo know Luffy? But still don't believe in merpeople? Hmm…  
>You guys have no idea how long I've been waiting to introduce that plot point. No idea.<p> 


	5. Art Show

A/N: Hey guys! I'm working on a self-set project right now that I call Works In Progress, which is why updates may be even slower than usual for a while. Basically I'm writing three chapter stories in a way I don't usually work, and I won't be posting them until I've written them in their entirety. I won't say more until they're closer to being finished, but I think you're going to like them. I certainly do.

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><p>Sabo went to classes the next day with a sense of unreality settled deep within his being. The shock of yesterday had dulled to a dazed disbelief, but it still demanded his attention and he found it difficult to keep his mind enough on his lectures to take notes.<p>

He was sitting on a bench in the courtyards of the campus, trying to revise a little more to make up for his absentmindedness in class, when he flipped the page he was reading and found Luffy's face smiling up at him.

He sucked in his lips and cursed Ace silently. He just had to use Sabo's notepaper for the drawing, didn't he?

"What's got you upset?" someone asked, sliding Sabo's notes binder out of his limp grip easily and holding it up to her face.

"Nojiko! Don't–"

"Oh, _wow_," she breathed, eyes widening as they landed on Luffy. "Did you draw this? I didn't know you were an artist."

"I didn't." Sabo took his binder back quickly and shot Nojiko a dull, annoyed glare. "My brother did. He goes to that art school a few blocks away."

Nojiko smiled and leaned toward him slightly, hoping to catch another glimpse at the sketch. "He's really good. Hey, aren't they having some kind of art show over there soon?"

"Yeah, tomorrow. It lasts all day," he said.

A glint appeared in her eyes that told Sabo she had an idea he wasn't going to like. "Hey… Do you mind babysitting my sister tomorrow?"

"…What? Isn't she only a couple years younger than we are?"

"Well, that's true," she admitted, "but I have friends coming over to work on an important project tomorrow! We need as much peace in the house as we can get. And she needs to get out more; she's been withdrawn lately, and it worries me. She was so outgoing only last year." She looked at him pleadingly. "Please? You can take her to the art show — hopefully get her to relax a bit. You're going anyway, aren't you? Your brother's in it."

Sabo shrugged, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. "I guess if she's okay with going, I could–"

"Great!" Nojiko interrupted. "You can pick her up anytime before three. You know they way to my house, right?" She turned and jogged back to whence she came, waving over her shoulder as she went. "Thanks again!"

Sabo sighed and sank back, returning to his notes. Luffy beamed up at him once again. "I blame you for this, Ace."

* * *

><p>"NAMI!" her sister yelled through the door. "Nami! Wake up!"<p>

Nami groaned, rolling over and holding her pillow to her ears. It felt as if her head were throbbing out a loud staccato rhythm, but it was only Nojiko knocking incessantly. "I'm up! What do you want?"

"Sabo just called to tell me he'd be swinging by in about an hour," said Nojiko. "I thought, you know, you'd want to get dressed and have breakfast first."

"What? Why?" Nami asked. She caught sight of herself in the mirror and made a face at her terrible bed head. "Who's… did you say Sumo?"

"Sabo," Nojiko said patiently. "I need the house today, so I asked him to take you to that show the art school is putting on."

Nami glanced at the alarm clock to her right. "And he's coming at seven in the morning? Why?"

"His brother's in the show. He's gotta be there early to do set up. Now get ready, I have to make breakfast!"

"Fine. Jesus," Nami growled, swinging her feet off the bed and pulling on her socks. "Could've warned me in advance…"

"I told you last night!" Nojiko hollered back, already sounding distant.

Nami would have thrown her pillow at the door, but that seemed far too childish for a woman of her sophistication. She stuck out her tongue at it instead.

* * *

><p>At seven-oh-five that morning, Nami sat uncomfortably in the back seat of Sabo's car. "Excuse me," she said as a pothole jerked a small driftwood carving into her lap, "do I <em>have<em> to sit back here with the art?"

"There's not enough room in the trunk — for you _or_ the art — so yes," said Sabo, shooting Ace a look before returning his eyes to the road.

"Heh, sorry about that," Ace apologised to her sheepishly. "I got a little bit carried away."

"I can see that." Nami picked up the carving and examined it. "You… really went all out with these."

"Do you like them?" he asked, grinning. "I'm rather proud of them myself… But if you're going to hold it you better be wearing gloves."

Nami rolled her eyes a little. "Why, am I getting fingerprints on it? _Artists_…"

"Probably," said Ace, "but that doesn't matter so much as the fact that you _really_ don't want the varnish on it touching you. You should wash your hands, and maybe your skirt, as soon as you can. Oh, and don't touch your face."

"Ace, please tell me we aren't going to have to get the car sterilised again," Sabo pleaded while Nami set the carving back down as quickly and as far from herself as she could manage.

"Sorry, no promises."

* * *

><p>At seven-thirty they arrived at the school, where Ace immediately set to putting up his area, latex gloves and hand-sanitizer in abundance. Ten minutes later, he propped up against the table a very prominent sign that read, '<strong>DO <strong>_**NOT**_** touch this exhibit! Direct touch is HAZARDOUS to your **_**health**_**!**' in crayon and glitter.

"He had an inordinate amount of fun creating that," Sabo told her in an undertone when she asked about it. "Says the professors never just let him colour recklessly like he did with that monstrosity."

"He really went all out," Nami said in amusement.

"He _still_ has glitter in his hair."

It was true. She had to squint at first, but every time Ace moved something glinted on his scalp. She raised her eyebrows. "Apparently artists never wash their hair."

"Well, _that _assumption is very flattering," said a voice behind them, causing them to turn around quickly.

"Oh, hey Killer," Sabo greeted the longhaired stranger. "I didn't know you were in the show too."

"I'm not," said Killer, smirking, "but I used my status as a student to get in before it opens. I wanna see the art before the place gets crowded."

"If you're looking for art, there's some behind us." Sabo gestured at Ace's little arrangement. "Enjoy."

"Right, thanks, but I know what your brother's art looks like. We _are_ in the same class."

Sabo gave him a plain look. "Oh, thank you, I had somehow forgotten since we last saw each other. When was that again? Four days ago? Time sure flies."

"That's why it's my job to jog your memory!" Killer chuckled. "Anyway, I just came from some of the younger years' stands — you should check them out. There's this one guy from the culinary class who's handing out treats."

"Right, like it's so hard to keep a plate of cookies around." Nami crossed her arms and shifted uneasily. Something about this guy made her feel smaller than she was comfortable feeling.

Killer laughed. "I like her. But seriously, the kid's good at what he does. He's easy to spot, too, just look for the long-nosed kid with all the merman shit. He's the one next to that."

"P… Pardon?" asked Sabo.

"Huh? Oh, there's this one kid who covered his space with all kinds of images of a merman. He's hard to miss. And apparently he and the chef guy are friends or something, so they set up next to each other."

"I see," Sabo said quietly. A long-nosed younger year who had made a lot of merman art? Could it really…? It seemed too coincidental for Sabo's liking, but he had to check it out. "And how far from here?"

"Just go that way, and take a left when you see the guy who made his project with wax. They'll be on the right."

"Thanks," said Sabo, taking Nami by the arm and pulling her away. He called over his shoulder, "Tell Ace where we're going when he's done setting up, okay?"

* * *

><p>The chef guy was happy enough to chat up Nami, plying her with any kind of food she could ask for, while Sabo stopped over next door to see the long-nosed boy's exhibit. He did notice, however, that the chef — Sanji, as he introduced himself — shot him glances every now and then.<p>

"Hello," Sabo said to the artist, "I'm Sabo."

"Usopp," he said. "How'd you get in before the show opens?"

"My brother's in it. So these are all yours?" Sabo asked, referring to the art pieces. Killer wasn't kidding when he said there were all kinds… He hadn't gotten a close enough look yet, but it didn't seem like Ace was exaggerating when he claimed they looked like Luffy, either.

Usopp beamed proudly. "Yup! I put a lot of work into them. You like them?"

"Can I see one up close?"

Usopp nodded and picked up a pencil sketch he had yet to put on display, handing it to Sabo.

Sabo took it carefully, knowing that artists, or at least Ace, could be very protective of their art when other people were involved. He held it up the light and was treated to a glimpse of Luffy looking back at him from below the surface of water. He let out a long breath. It was undeniably Luffy, no two ways about it. He felt slightly sick.

"Sabo?" Usopp ventured cautiously. "Are you– Are you all right?"

"Perfectly fine!" he exclaimed, startling the younger boy. "My brother told me you were good, but he didn't say _this_ good."

Usopp flushed slightly. "Ah, well… You should see the series I made about Alaskan crab fishermen. Unfortunately, the ship that was transporting it to the Louvre was capsized in an unprecedented water skiing accident…"

Sabo ignored the odd narrative to sweep his eyes across the other images. Almost all of them had Luffy submerged in water some way. He quirked his lips but they held no humour. _And Luffy said he couldn't swim._

"Sabo? You're spacing out. Are you sure your okay?"

Sabo blinked a few times before smiling at Usopp. "I'm good. So… Who is it?"

"Pardon?" asked Usopp.

"Him," Sabo indicated the merman, though he held no delusion of who it could be. "Who is he? It's a rather distinctive face. Where'd you get it from?"

"It, uh, just came to me," said Usopp, scratching the side of his nose. "In a dream."

"Oh." Sabo felt disappointed, although he had tried his best not to get his hopes up. Then a thought occurred to him. "You know, I read somewhere that your unconscious mind can't create human faces on its own, and everyone you see in your dreams in someone you've seen at some point in your life."

"Really?" Usopp asked, not sounding at all like he wanted to know more. "I guess I must have passed him on the street one day or something."

_Or maybe you saw him on a m–_

"Sabo?" Nami called. He turned to look at her, and she was obviously getting tired of Sanji's attention. "Are you gonna spend the whole time over there? Come on, get something to eat before the show starts."

Sabo paused, but eventually caved and handed the sketch back to its artist. "See you around? Or, well, I go to law school, but you'll see my brother around?"

"Uh, okay. What's his name?"

"He's Ace. Portgas D Ace." Sabo turned at that moment and went over to Nami, so he didn't see Usopp pale.

"_Your brother_ is _Portgas-sempai_?" Usopp asked weakly.

Sabo didn't hear him, leading Nami back to Ace's spot instead. On the way, she shared a chocolate croissant she had grabbed with him. It was, indeed, very good, and when Ace learned of it he was disappointed they hadn't saved any for him.

Sabo decided not to tell him of his talk with Usopp just yet. It could wait for another day. Ace might do something incredibly stupid, and besides, Sabo needed some time to think things over first.

Yes, it could wait.

* * *

><p>AN: Finally! I'm so bad at updating on time, aren't I? That's part of the inspiration behind Works in Progress. That way, I can update at my own discretion, rather than that of my muse, and not worry about disappointing people. Until we meet again, my dear readers. I love you all.


	6. It's You

A/N: You would have had this update a couple days before Christmas, except my laptop decided to die just as I was finishing it. Sorry for the delay, everyone, but now we're back on track!

* * *

><p>Zoro's eye twitched as he cursed. He looked down the hallway to his left — which had many doors, and ended in a fork — and then the one to his right — which seemed to have no purpose but to branch off into other hallways.<p>

He cursed again. The Fishman City palace just had to be the labyrinth type, didn't it?

"Do you need help?" an amused voice asked from behind him.

Zoro started and swung around, met with the sight of a boy with a long trail of white scales curling behind him. "You!"

"Me!" said the boy with a laugh. "Lost?"

"Of course not, brat!" Zoro scowled. "I know exactly where I am."

"Do you know where everything else is?"

"…No..."

"Then I can help you!" the boy said cheerfully. "I know this palace like the back of my fin. Where are you going?"

Zoro sighed and reached up to scratch his brow. "I'm supposed to be looking for Shirahoshi…"

The boy's smile dropped immediately. "Why?"

"My uncle wants me to meet her, for some reason."

The boy nodded, mouth schooled into a straight line. "She's not here at the moment," he said apologetically. Then he smiled again. "Wouldn't you rather have an adventure?"

Zoro blinked twice at the boy. He shook his head slowly, but he was smiling. "What sort of an adventure?"

The boy's smile became a grin. "This way," he whispered, grabbing Zoro's wrist.

* * *

><p>Usopp bit his tongue, trying to hold his wrist as steady as possibly. A pink globule of paint sat on the end of his paintbrush, waiting to be applied. It had to be perfect.<p>

The tip hit the Masonite lightly, at an angle, and he held it there for a second before pulling it away for inspection.

He was nodding to himself, pleased, when movement in the corner of his vision caught his eye. He looked over and nearly dropped his brush to the ground.

Standing there, waving at him, was the one and only Portgas D Ace.

The One and Only Portgas D Ace walked over to Usopp. "Hi there! We met before, remember? On the beach?"

"Y-yeah," Usopp stammered. Then, stupidly, he held out his hand. "I'm Usopp."

Ace took his hand. _Usopp was shaking hands with the One and Only Portgas D Ace._ "My brother told me he saw you at the show."

"Oh, d-did he?"

"Yeah. He had a lot of things to say about your exhibit…"

Usopp cringed at the phrasing. "What sort of things?"

"Good things." Ace thought back to his brother's red-faced shouting the night before. "Passionate things."

Usopp snorted privately. "He didn't seem like much of an art connoisseur to me."

The One and Only Portgas D Ace _laughed at something Usopp said._ "He's not! It's just, well…"

"What?" Usopp asked, concerned at the sort of queasy expression that had crossed Ace's face. "It's just what?"

Ace looked at him for a moment before he sighed defeatedly. "Look, I'll be honest with you. That kid in your merman drawings…"

"That's what this is about?" Usopp interrupted. "I already told your brother, I don't—"

"Just hear me out, okay? The kid you drew— his name is Luffy."

"…Huh?"

"Sabo and I _know_ him. But he- he disappeared, two years ago. We've been looking for him since, but…"

"You haven't found him, have you?" Usopp asked quietly.

Ace shook his head. "No. And I guess, by now, we're really just desperate for any sort of lead, and your artwork—"

"Alright, alright," said Usopp. "I can… I can show you where I saw him, if you like."

Ace smiled softly. "Thank you."

Usopp smiled back, rubbing the back of his head bashfully. "I, uh, just have to clean up first—"

"Let me help," Ace said quickly. He took Usopp's paintbrush and pallet over to the sink to clean, while Usopp packed away his acrylics. "These yours or the school's?"

"Mine."

He returned them to Usopp, who stowed them with his paints. "Thanks."

As Usopp hefted the pack onto his back, Ace turned and caught sight of the painting Usopp had been working on. "Wow. Who's that?"

"Her?" Usopp asked, looking at the Masonite in surprise. "Uh… Just someone I haven't seen in years. I miss her sometimes."

"Ah," Ace said knowingly. "You liked her, didn't you?"

"N-not in that way!" Usopp stuttered. He adjusted the pack on his shoulders. "Let's just go, okay?"

Ace nodded. He followed as Usopp marched blushingly out of the room, leaving behind the painted girl with fair skin, big, sorrowful blue eyes, and cascading wavy pink hair.

* * *

><p>"Thank you, Sanji-kun," Nami said, sipping delicately on the tropical drink he had handed her. "Ah! It's amazing! How do you make these so well?"<p>

"It comes with practice, mademoiselle," Sanji practically sang. He glided back to the oven to check the biscuits when his phone beeped. He slipped it out of his pocket, and with a quick apology to Nami, flipped it open.

'_plz get down to the beach I need yr help plz'_

It was from Usopp. His brow furrowed.

'_With what? I have a lady over i cant leave'_

'_no srsly help I dont know how to talk to the OOPDA'_

'_the what'_

'_the one and only prtgs d ace come on Im dying here'_

'_i hate u. on my way'_

With a click and a sigh, the phone was closed and placed back in his pocket. He gave Nami, who looked on curiously, a regretful smile, and said, "Forgive me, mon cher. I have to make my leave early today; my friend needs my help."

She smiled and waved his apologies away. Then, as he began to tidy up his supplies, she sat patiently, as she knew he wouldn't allow her to trouble herself so.

* * *

><p>The boy led Zoro cautiously through the palace, taking him out one of the windows and into the city. He then took off towards the border, leaving Zoro to try and keep up while the boy yammered all the while.<p>

"My name's Luffy, I've lived in this city for as long as I can remember, and I don't live in the palace but I sneak in all the time because…"

His voice trailed off as he pulled further and further ahead of Zoro. Luffy finally seemed to notice the distance between them when Zoro tried to turn right at a fork in the road, and Luffy doubled back.

"What are you doing? Left! Not right! You're following me, how can you get lost following me, because I don't think that's possible—"

This process repeated itself several times before Luffy, finally getting the message that Zoro just didn't have enough speed or direction, picked the older merman up under the armpits and carried him along as if he were a starfish.

"So Shirahoshi said, 'oh, Law-san, what are you doing here?' And Trafalguy said, 'what does it look like I'm doing?' And then Fukaboshi was like, 'you _know_ this maniac?' And I said— Oh! We're here!"

Before Zoro could puzzle out why Luffy would have said 'oh, we're here' in response to Fukaboshi, Luffy pointed upwards at the surface of the water. He lost his grip on Zoro completely and swam up to it, beckoning Zoro to follow.

He complied, and when he broke the surface he was awed by the sight of a cave wall littered with crystals. He only noticed because of his companion starting when a hoarse, quiet voice broke the silence.

"Luffy…?"

Three humans stood in the cavern, staring at them in shock and wonder.


	7. Chasing Tails

A/N: It's been nearly two years since I first posted this story as a one shot in celebration of Usopp's birthday (April 1st). How the times change… It really was just a dude and a merman to me back then.

Also, for fans of Anjelle's story _The Divide_ (and the author — I know you follow this story, Anjelle! Don't deny it!), I wrote a short little parody sort of thing. You can find the link on my profile.

* * *

><p>"How… How do you know my name?" the merman asked, backing away slightly through the water.<p>

Ace was crouching by the side of the pool in an instant. "Oh god, it's you. It's really you."

Usopp gaped, glancing from the two trepid mermen and Ace to Sanji, who was far more affected than he was. His friend had flattened himself against the wall of the cave, one hand covering his mouth, eyes wide.

"Holy fuck…" Sanji whispered. "That's…"

Ace reached out to grab Luffy's arm, but the boy pulled away with a yelp.

"Leave him alone!" the other merman barked. "Fucking human!"

Sanji went even whiter.

"Luffy- Luffy, it's me," Ace tried. "You know me. Don't you remember me? It's Ace; it's okay, I—"

He reached for Luffy again, but this time the merman ducked entirely under the water, the green-haired one following shortly thereafter. Ace cursed.

"Um, P-Portgas-sempai?" said Usopp, stepping forward. "It's, um, I'm sure we could—"

He was cut off by a loud splash. Ace had jumped into the water without another thought.

Beside Usopp, Sanji sank down to his knees. "What- how- _hell_!"

"H-hey, it's alright," Usopp said, rushing back to crouch with Sanji. "It's crazy, I know, but I mean… you know…"

"I don't- fuck! We're insane! All of us! We've all gone insane!"

"We haven't. I swear we haven't. It's real, really real, _really really really_ real—"

"Shit, that's worse!" Sanji stood suddenly, knocking Usopp away from him. He turned and rushed out the ascending pathway.

"Sanji, wait!" Another splash. Usopp turned around to see Ace surface for air. "Portgas-sempai? Are you alright?"

"They're gone," Ace growled. "Don't know how the fuck they're so fast, but they're gone." He smashed his fist against the floor, still treading water. "Damn it all!"

"Um, we could…" Usopp scratched his head. He had no idea what they could do.

He hadn't needed to continue, however, as Ace took another gulp of air and dove down again.

Usopp decided to trust that Ace could make his own way out. He ran out of the cavern to find Sanji.

* * *

><p>He came to Sanji down on the sand, where his friend was pacing with no regard for the mud clinging to his shoes and muttering into a cell phone.<p>

"I know what I saw," Sanji was saying. "I know- I'm not crazy- I kind of wish I was, honestly."

"Sanji?"

The blond looked up at him. "I'll call you back," he said, hanging up the phone.

"Who were you talking to just now?" Usopp asked.

"Tashigi."

"Really? You haven't spoken to her in years…" Usopp paused, running what he'd heard his friend say through his head. "And you were so blunt with her just now."

Sanji squared his shoulders, feathers obviously ruffled at the blow to his chivalry. "Well… It's a really shitty situation."

"Sanji… It's not as bad as all that," Usopp said, approaching and putting a hand on Sanji's shoulder. Surprisingly, he wasn't rebuffed. "So a fairy tale is true. People thought the internet was science fiction, once upon a time."

"…Look, I know what I saw," said Sanji. "And… I saw Zoro."

"Zoro?" It took a moment for the name to connect in Usopp's memory. "What- _That_ Zoro? The one you told me about?"

"Yes, the one I told you about! Do you know _another_ Zoro?!"

"But- how is that possible?"

"It isn't!"

"Then how are you so sure that was him?!"

"I _saw_ him! I heard him speak! It'd be impossible for me not to recognise him when I knew him for so long!"

"But…" Usopp gulped. "You said… You told me you watched him kill himself."

"I did," Sanji said weakly, sinking down into the sand. "I just- I really wish we were just going insane. It'd be so much easier."

Usopp sat down beside him silently. A few minutes passed before Ace landed nearby, having hopped down from the notches in the rock face.

He was grinning. "Productive day, huh boys?" Ignoring — or not noticing, as it was quite dark — the glare Sanji sent his way, he continued, "When can we try again?"

"I- I'm not sure if anytime soon is a good idea," said Usopp, to Ace's disappointment and Sanji's relief. "We could talk about it later?"

"Alright," Ace agreed, walking past them. Under the moonlight, Usopp caught a glimpse of something yellow, red, and sopping wet clutched triumphantly in Ace's hand. "Though I was hoping to get back to it tomorrow…"

When the three of them went back to their homes that night, it was to very different things. For Ace, there was the presentation of the discovered straw hat to his brother, and the joy of its recovery. Wherever it went, Luffy was surely not far behind.

For Sanji, it was a barrage of text messages and emails from Tashigi, rife with exclamation points, capslock, question marks, and typos. He never replied to any one of them, for lack of the knowledge how.

For Usopp, Chopper had piddled on his passport. Usopp resolved to find a dog trainer.

* * *

><p>"Bro!" Yosaku called from the cabin, yelling to be heard over the howling ocean wind. "Boss says pull in the sails!"<p>

"Aye!" Johnny yelled back. The wind had turned foul not long ago — the storm was not at all a rough one, but it had come up very suddenly and now the fishing vessel was rushing to avoid as much damage as possible.

The boat lurched suddenly, throwing Johnny off his footing. He only saved himself by grabbing the rail as the deck went from horizontal to nearly vertical. "What the hell?!"

"Bro! What the hell was that?!" Yosaku yelled. "We nearly capsized!"

"I don't know! This storm's not that bad!"

"PULL UP THE NET!" their boss ordered. Johnny set to doing so immediately.

For some reason, it was much harder than it usually was. Johnny would have guessed the storm, but it was almost like it was heavier than it should be. Johnny wondered if it was a large catch.

When the net was up, he nearly dropped it back down again. "Oh, god! Bro… YOSAKU! BOSS! COME AND SEE THIS!"

Yosaku came peeling out of the cabin, the boss waddling behind with exasperation. The storm was thankfully calming down, not that it had been so bad in the first place.

"What is it now, boy?" the boss asked.

"What happened, bro?"

Wordlessly, Johhny pointed at the net. As the two looked up, both sets of eyes grew wide. The boss' mustache seemed to droop in shock.

"Mary, mother of God…" the boss muttered, taking off his hat and holding it to his chest.

Inside their net, among the dying fish, was an apparently unconscious teenage boy — at least, he was a teenage boy from the waist up. Extending down from his hips was a gleaming, gigantic white tail.

* * *

><p>AN: Admit it. How many of you actually remembered that Chopper wasn't house trained?

You might notice the summary keeps changing. I can't settle on something I'm happy with. This new one is an improvement from the last, I think, but I probably won't like it for long. Anyone have any suggestions for something permanent?


	8. Fishing Net

A/N: Johnny and Yosaku's boss is not an OC. He's just a _really_ minor character who was named in the SBS section. You can look him up on the OP wiki if you like.

* * *

><p>Zoro had gotten lost.<p>

By the time Luffy realised this, the green merman was out of sight. He should have known better; he had already seen how easily Zoro could lag behind and wander off, and yet in his panic he hadn't bothered to grab Zoro by the armpits like he had taken to last time. Luffy would have to double back and look for him.

He was so distracted looking for Zoro he didn't notice the storm coming on. It only hit him when — actually, it hit him when it literally hit him. A wild current had catapulted a sizeable rock his way, knocking him hard over the head. The water around his temples became tinted murky pink.

Luffy kept looking for Zoro, foggily now. At the same time he kept an eye out for any cover from the storm, in case it took a turn for the worse.

He perked up when he saw a cluster of different types of fish gathered, motionless, all together. The currents were picking up more now, though they weren't all as bad as the one that had beaned him with a rock. Surely, the fish would be swimming away or be being pushed around by the water, unless they had found some sort of still pocket — or even better, had found some really, really tasty meal! Luffy took off towards it.

He overshot and wound up several metres past the gathering of fish, but some invisible force latched onto him as he did. It felt like little squares, just the borders of them, pressing into his skin and scales. He shut his eyes as the force stopped him in his tracks, then started to pull him backwards. When he opened them, he could see black lines in front of his face. Black lines surrounding him, in every direction, everywhere he could see, numerous and never-ending.

At that moment, a turtle that had been caught in the infinite lines above him jerked, and only succeeded in ramming into Luffy's head shell first. He blinked, and the water around his head became more red than murky pink, and then there was no colour at all but black.

* * *

><p>When Luffy gained consciousness, it was to the sound of voices.<p>

"Boss, isn't this a little… cruel?"

"Yeah, Boss, I think… I think we might get PETA on our asses for this…"

"I know it seems cruel, boys, but we don't know what it's capable of. What if it wakes up angry?"

Luffy shifted, and the three voices were immediately silent. However, even as they quieted, noise came when he moved — something was around his wrist. By the touch he could guess that it was that metal substance humans used so often. He moved his other arm; it was there, too, on his other wrist. He tried his tail. Metal was ringed around it. For some reason, he couldn't raise his arms up, but he shrugged his shoulders and found that there was more metal on his neck, digging into his chin and collar bone.

Luffy opened his eyes. He could see the metal around him, with heavy chains leading away from them towards a wooden pillar in the water. It was the leg of a dock, which three people were standing on.

The shortest one pulled out a human device called a camera.

"Um, Attach, sir," one of the taller ones said, "are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I'll just take one. Is there a problem?" Attach looked sternly at the two young men, and they both shook their head feverishly. "Well then." He brought the camera to his face, pointing it towards Luffy. "Fire!"

Luffy scrambled to get under the water. He wasn't an expert on humans, but he knew that humans shouting 'fire' was a dangerous thing — unfortunately, the chains prevented him from getting deeper down than a foot, and kept him entirely horizontal. He only managed to flail a bit, kicking up water.

Attach clicked his tongue, looking down at his camera. "The shot's ruined. I'll need to—"

"N- no, Boss," said the one with the design on his face, "that's enough, don't you think? He doesn't like it."

"It's a fish, Johnny," Attach said, giving the younger human a look. "Do you think it prefers that we grill it up on the barbeque, or sell it to the Baratie?"

"No…"

"You don't think it would rather get some blurry photos taken than be eaten?"

"I- I guess…"

"Well then." Attach handed Johnny the camera. "Would you like to do the honours?"

Johnny gulped. When he raised the camera Luffy tried to duck, because even though he knew what a camera was _called_ he still didn't know what it _did_, but then one of those human, Yagara-like contraptions on rubber, round spinners pulled up by the dock.

"Those would be the specialists I called in," Attach said, snatching the camera out of Johnny's hands in the blink of an eye. He called towards the contraption, "Men!"

"Flamin' Attachan! Good to see you again!" said a blue-haired man with dark lenses held over his eyes by frames, as he stepped out of the — transportation — metal — thing.

The other human who stepped out had a nose that was long, like that of the first human Luffy had ever seen, but oddly squared. "So, what's this about a mysterious…" The man's eyes landed on Luffy and widened. "…fish…"

"Is that… but… That's…" the other man raised the lenses away from his eyes to stare at Luffy. "How did you—"

"Are you going to help us get him out of public or not?" Attach interrupted. Johnny and the other young man fell in line behind him as he waved his hand at them.

"Right, right," said the square-nosed man. "Franky?"

"…Yeah," the blue-haired man answered, taking the… thing… the nose guy handed to him. Luffy could barely see it, but the part that was visible looked sharp.

Franky waded into the water towards him, and Luffy tried to pull away, but he was stopped by the chains. Franky paused at this, but a snapped "Hurry up already!" from someone on land made him continue.

"It's alright, little guy," Franky said, slipping an arm under his back to hold him in an elevated position. "Trust me, okay? I got you."

Luffy still squirmed against the man's large hand as something pricked his arm.

"Man… I really don't know how you got yourself into this one, Strawhat-bro," Franky said, as the colour to Luffy's vision faded again. "But I got your back, just like always. Things'll be super again in no time!"

* * *

><p>"Right," was the first word Luffy heard when he awoke for the second time. "Yeah. Of course."<p>

His eyes blinked open, and found in front of them a sheet of glass. He put his hand against it, and felt that it had a slight curve.

"I'm serious!" the voice from before said, drawing his attention away. "No, really. …A fisherman contact of mine. He said it just swam into his net."

The square-nosed man entered his line of sight, and Luffy fell as still as possible. Nose Guy wasn't looking at him, but he was talking, and holding something square-ish against his ear.

"They put it in this giant fishbowl Franky made. I don't think it could break the glass, but even if it did, it would just dry out and die." Nose Guy turned to Luffy, and didn't seem at all affected by Luffy returning his gaze. "Yes, I checked. That, too… Yeah, it's one of ours. One of the mutated ones." He came right up to the glass, and Luffy tried, once again, to get out of reach, but his own tail fouled him up as it took up all the space between him and another glass sheet. Nose Guy tapped on the glass. "One with a super long tail. …Using the word super does _not_ mean I'm spending too much time with Franky! Just check the records and send retrieval."

Nose Guy took the square-ish thing away from his ear and folded it in half, slipping it into the cloth that adorned his legs. He looked at Luffy, and his eyes showed some sort of sympathy. "What _are_ they going to do with you?"

* * *

><p>AN: Some specifics — I did some calculations and Luffy's tail is twenty-two feet (almost seven metres) long, which is… really long, not that that need be stated. And this fic is officially two years old tomorrow! …Which means I've given you an average of four chapters a year. How do you put up with me?


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